Best beaches in Nassau, St.Thomas, St. Johns, and St. Maarten.

Hello Everyone,

I am taking my family on the Carnival Glory on 03/17/07.

The itiniary is for Nassau in the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Normally we would go to Atlantis in the Bahamas and visit the beach there but I think you have to pay for it now.

In St.Thomas we have gone to Trunk Bay in St. Johns but I think we might not have enough time because we arrive there at 10 am and then we have to go through the never ending customs deal in which I have not experianced before.

In St. Maarten we have been there ony once and took a Carnival excursion and it was awful so we will not do that again.

What I want to know is what are the best beaches to go to in Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Johns, and St. Maarten? I am looking for beaches that my wife and I and our 4 and 8 year olds can enjoy.

Also, if anyone knows for sure, can you tell me the prices for access to the beaches and the aqarium in Atlantis in Nassau?

I forgot to mention, we do not want to go on any excursions. We want to do this on our own.

Thanks so much for the help!!

Robert

We spent a week in St Thomas and experienced just about the whole island in that time. They say that Magens Bay is the nicest but we were there and I beg to differ. My sister warned me that it would not be as amazing as I expect and she was right. We visited Sapphire Beach I think it was called and that was nice but we really really enjoyed Bolongo Bay. It is a hotel with 2 resturaunts and a nice beach, we went there twice while we were there for the week and plan on going back there again on our upcoming cruise. They do have a website, I believe it is www.bolongobay.com. It is open to the public but I think you have to pay $5 for a beach chair. The food there is great and there are plenty of activities...hope this helps!

Hello Everyone,

 

I am taking my family on the Carnival Glory on 03/17/07.

The itiniary is for Nassau in the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Normally we would go to Atlantis in the Bahamas and visit the beach there but I think you have to pay for it now.

In St.Thomas we have gone to Trunk Bay in St. Johns but I think we might not have enough time because we arrive there at 10 am and then we have to go through the never ending customs deal in which I have not experianced before.

In St. Maarten we have been there ony once and took a Carnival excursion and it was awful so we will not do that again.

 

What I want to know is what are the best beaches to go to in Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Johns, and St. Maarten? I am looking for beaches that my wife and I and our 4 and 8 year olds can enjoy.

 

Also, if anyone knows for sure, can you tell me the prices for access to the beaches and the aqarium in Atlantis in Nassau?

 

 

I forgot to mention, we do not want to go on any excursions. We want to do this on our own.

 

Thanks so much for the help!!

 

Robert

It is actually immigration that you go through in St Thomas. It went really quickly for us when we were there. Was basically just a line that kept moving No waiting at all. It was more like a slight detour to get off the ship in my opinion

Hello Everyone,

 

I am taking my family on the Carnival Glory on 03/17/07.

The itiniary is for Nassau in the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Normally we would go to Atlantis in the Bahamas and visit the beach there but I think you have to pay for it now.

In St.Thomas we have gone to Trunk Bay in St. Johns but I think we might not have enough time because we arrive there at 10 am and then we have to go through the never ending customs deal in which I have not experianced before.

In St. Maarten we have been there ony once and took a Carnival excursion and it was awful so we will not do that again.

 

What I want to know is what are the best beaches to go to in Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Johns, and St. Maarten? I am looking for beaches that my wife and I and our 4 and 8 year olds can enjoy.

 

Also, if anyone knows for sure, can you tell me the prices for access to the beaches and the aqarium in Atlantis in Nassau?

 

 

I forgot to mention, we do not want to go on any excursions. We want to do this on our own.

 

Thanks so much for the help!!

 

Robert

I am sailing the Glory on June 23rd. My group has reserved rooms at the Comfort Inn which allows it's guests full access to Atlantis. I think the cost will be about 53.00 pp once we split it up. I think this is good for an "excursion". You might check on the Bahama's thread in the Port's of Call section. There is a wealth of info there. Good luck and happy sailing!

Hey Tomcat,

If you havent already done so check out our roll call at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=392368 There are quite a few of us going on that cruise and there is a lot of good information in that thread.

The beach that is beside the Atlantis is free and only $4 per person for the taxi ride there. We ended up there by mistake when I let DH (who has a heavy accent) tell the taxi driver we wanted to go to the Atlantis so we ended up at this free beach instead. Not sure what it is called.

For St Thomas it depends what you want to do. You can look up on the net an article I wrote called The beaches of st thomas. Just google that and you'll find it. It is at the bottom of the first page that comes up on google.

We spent a week in St Thomas and experienced just about the whole island in that time. They say that Magens Bay is the nicest but we were there and I beg to differ. My sister warned me that it would not be as amazing as I expect and she was right. We visited Sapphire Beach I think it was called and that was nice but we really really enjoyed Bolongo Bay. It is a hotel with 2 resturaunts and a nice beach, we went there twice while we were there for the week and plan on going back there again on our upcoming cruise. They do have a website, I believe it is www.bolongobay.com. It is open to the public but I think you have to pay $5 for a beach chair. The food there is great and there are plenty of activities...hope this helps!

I've thought about doing bolongobay as well when we go to St. Thomas in October. I would really like to see St. John but to me it sounds like doing all of the ferrying over would prove to be expensive and eat into our time. We just want a nice beach to kick back on. I seen Magen's Bay on TV Sunday night on the Travel Channel's cruise ship program. It didn't look like what i had pictured. Anyway, does bolongobay get crowded on the beach? Are their plenty of chairs to rent? I emailed them and they said we were welcome to come and use the pool and amenities for $60pp, or if we didn't want to pay that,we are still allowed to eat, drink and rent chairs on the beach. Sounds great to me. I was also wondering about Secret Harbour. Did you go there, and how did it compare? Thanks.

Welcome Robert! We took this same trip last year and LOVED it!!!

You might want to check out a private Daysail in St. Thomas - the one we took left from the American Yacht Club (took a cab there) and we sailed over to St. John and snorkeled. You are chartering a private sailboat, with a captain and first mate, limit of 6 people can go (very intimate and fun!) they usually provide drinks and snacks and snorkel equipment. It costs anywhere from $85-100 a person for typically a 3-4 hour experience, not cheap but WELL worth it! And you might get to negoitiate the kid fares down, most boats are privately owned and you are dealing directly with the owner. It really was the highlight of our trip!!!!!!!

There are pics in our ablum in the Glory link below. And you can get lots of info on the St. thomast website (click here). We sailed with the Independence and LOVED it! Have fun!!!!

Be careful on St. Maarten with the kids. On the French side of the island there will definitely be toplessness and quiet possibly full nudity at the beaches, especially Orient Bay. to minimize the risk, if seeing that is a concern stay on the Dutch side. the beach right in town is OK, not the best , but it is right there and you won't have to deal with the lack of clothing issue.

If you are on St. Thomas and want to snorkel try Coki Beach. If you want to relax try Secret Harbor, both are nice. Of course on St. John Trunk Bay is well known.

In Nassau try Cable Beach.

Good Luck

Hello!

My husband and I are also going on that cruise 3/17. I'm glad you posted your question, because we were wondering the same thing! We love to just sit on the beach and hope we can do that on this cruise.

We have been to Coki beach twice. There is a stand that rents snorkel equipment and sells dog biscuits 4/1.00. The fish will swim around you and eat the bits of biscuit that disintegrate. Great fun with an underwater camera...

when i was on the valor we had a blast doing the following:

nassau: princess island stingray and snorkel excursion

st thomas: we took the ferry from red hook to st john and hung out at trunk bay

st maarten: we rented a van. drove to marigot for second breakfast (french pastries), drove to grand case for lunch (ate awesome food for super cheap, saw a water spout), relaxed at orient in the afternoon (v. pretty), and then dropped byphilipsburg to get some guavaberry liquor (awesome!!!).

when i was on the valor we had a blast doing the following:

nassau: princess island stingray and snorkel excursion

st thomas: we took the ferry from red hook to st john and hung out at trunk bay

st maarten: we rented a van. drove to marigot for second breakfast (french pastries), drove to grand case for lunch (ate awesome food for super cheap, saw a water spout), relaxed at orient in the afternoon (v. pretty), and then dropped byphilipsburg to get some guavaberry liquor (awesome!!!).

If you rent a jeep/car in St. Martin, there is a beautiful quiet beach, great for kids in between Grand Case and Marigot called Friar's Bay. It is on the French side, so toplessness is ok, but nudity isn't allowed here. I saw one woman topless. There were only a few people here, not crowded and built up like Orient is. There is a beach side restaurant too.

http://island.sxmsaintmartin.com/beach/friars_bay_beach.php?menu=menuplage1.php&pagecourante=5

May I recommend Honeymoon Beach on Water Island for your stay in St. Thomas? Water Island is accessed by water taxi from Crown Bay Marina. (Just do a Google search for particulars.) My boyfriend and I had the beach to ourselves on a beautiful weekday afternoon. The day we were there, there were no services offered. We brought a snack and water, and beach towels, from the ship, and had a picnic. You must climb up and over a modest hill from the taxi, but it's worth it. It is a lovely spot.

We are doing this same cruise on the Glory in September as a second honeymoon, we were there 31 years ago for our honeymoon and loved maigans bay so sorry to hear its not that beautiful anymore. :(

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I am dying to go to Atlantis Ship tour is tooo expensive